Extending the Family
by Hopeakaarme
Summary: Mokona is a girl. The other Mokona is a boy. Kurogane's somewhat peaceful life is messed up quite a bit by the arrival of baby Mokonas. Implied shounen ai KuroganeFay and DoumekiWatanuki.


Disclaimer: CLAMP owns them.

A/N: This is the result of a silly RP chat, a sleepless night and too much sugar. Best not read too seriously.

* * *

Extending the Family

* * *

All in all, Kurogane decided, however nice the kids could occasionally be, life was damn much better when they weren't constantly in the way. Especially now that they were nearing their twenties.

He'd never admit to missing them, of course. That'd be just beyond no-no. He was glad they were away, and anybody claiming otherwise would bear the consequences. He didn't need a pair of romantically involved not-quite-teenagers-anymore running around and causing trouble.

Especially since Mokona could very well do that all by itself.

Fay complained that the kids didn't call often enough, to which Kurogane would always comment he could always call them for a change, at which Fay always did. There were days he'd talk to people dimensions away more than he did to Kurogane. The ninja could not always decide whether this was good or bad.

It was rather easy to decide, however, that Mokona and the mage spoke far too much, far too loudly, and far too often.

At least he was glad they weren't sharing his former rather sparse accommodations. He'd been more than ready, of course, but Tomoyo wouldn't have heard of it, brushing him aside as though he was an insect unworthy of her attention (or, at least, his protests were). A family needed a home, she had decided, and a home they had, with a bedroom for the adults and another for Mokona and even semi-decent cooking space for when Fay felt like cooking instead of eating the castle's meals, and a small living area and a study, too. And, naturally, Tomoyo had offered several guest rooms for their use for whenever the children felt like visiting.

Back then, he had been furious at having his opinion ignored like that. Now he was simply grateful. However much he cared for them, sometimes the mage and the meat bun just got on his nerves a tad too much. Well, two tads. Or maybe three.

This was one of those times. Mokona had just returned from a visit to the witch's world – Kurogane wasn't quite sure he wanted to know the purpose of this visit – and was now chattering happily to the very interested mage about Doumeki and Watanuki. The ninja was not quite interested enough to stick around for the news; Fay would later tell him whatever he needed to know. It wasn't like he was as interested in those two as he was in their kids.

Which didn't mean, of course, that he'd just ignore them. No, he liked them, much though he hated to admit it, and counted them extended family of sorts. You tended to learn to like people who shot dead the monsters that were just about to devour you and your immediate family. And the Doumeki boy actually had a working head on his shoulders, providing much better conversational company than even Syaoran could. Doumeki was a great help for all those times he felt like he was the only one in this bizarre family with any kind of sense. Having three kids and a thing-in-law-of-sorts did wonders to one's sanity, and not in a good way.

Doumeki occasionally seemed to have it even worse than he did, even. At least when he had to battling hideous monsters attempting to murder everybody he cared about he could always see those monsters. It was kind of comforting, thinking that perhaps, in one teeny tiny aspect of their daily lives, he didn't have it the worst of all.

Of course, most people would not have considered fighting with various monsters a part of their daily life. Most people, however, weren't ninjas working for a princess who seemed to attract assassins like honey would bees. Nor did they call another princess their daughter (well, Kurogane almost never did, voluntarily anyway, but Fay called her that and it stuck). Nor were they uncles-of-sorts of a kid who seemed like a tasty treat for any human-devouring monster in the neighbourhood… At least Sakura and Watanuki had their own protectors most of the time. He only had to worry about the assassins after his princess. And, of course, anybody who would even think that hurting a frail-looking, absentminded blonde would be easy, beneficial and/or fun. Not that Fay couldn't look after himself, but… Kurogane simply felt a damn lot better whenever he knew his lover was reasonably safe (and, preferably, under his protection).

Now he didn't have to worry about protecting, though. All he was concerned about was getting away from the never-ending chatter. Sure, it was nice to know their friends were still alive and kicking, but did it absolutely need be told in so much detail? It wasn't like they were daft or anything. A simple "they're fine" would have sufficed. For Kurogane, anyway.

For Fay and Mokona, though, it didn't seem to be that simple. Which was the reason Kurogane currently wondered whether the storm raging outside would be really that bad once he got used to it.

Probably not, he decided as he heard Mokona's giggles mixed with Fay's laughter. Hadn't the two ever heard of silence?!

* * *

"Mokona has been very happy lately," Fay commented lightly, glancing at the white ball as it bounced by. "And so are the other children, too. It seems they don't really need us anymore, eh, Kuro-rin?"

"Just you wait," Kurogane commented dryly. "Eventually the princess and the brat will get it and then we'll have our hands full with grandchildren." Once the mere thought would have sent him into a fit. Now he actually felt like he might survive it. The mage was clearly rubbing off on him.

"Oh, that'll be wonderful!" Fay said, clapping his hands. "I can hardly wait! Although I fear I will spoil the poor children far too much," he added with a smile.

"Undoubtedly," muttered Kurogane. He was very confident that the children would love "Fay-Grandma". He also had no doubt Fay indeed was going to insist on being 'grandmother'. It was unlikely he'd actually pay any regard to his true gender in this matter of naming after so many years of insisting he was the children's mother. (Kurogane didn't even want to know how he had come to such a conclusion in the first place.)

Fay merely smiled at his comment, changing to other topics. Finally, though, he seemed to have got enough of talking – as though such a thing was possible. "I think I'll go tell Mokona good night," he then said. "Although I think it might already be asleep, having been so excited the whole day."

Grumbling something incomprehensible, Kurogane semi-grudgingly followed the mage. The blonde stopped before the door of Mokona's room, about to open it as it burst open as though all by itself, a little white thing bouncing at the doorway.

"No, Fay-mommy!" Mokona shouted almost frantically, waving its hands around wildly. "Fay-mommy and Kuro-daddy can't come in right now!"

"Mokona?" asked Fay confusedly. "Mokona-chan, is something wrong?"

"Oh, no, nothing is wrong!" replied Mokona, sounding something between anxious and excited. "You'll see tomorrow! Now, Mokona is busy!" With this, it bounced back into its room, closing the door behind it.

Fay glanced at Kurogane. Kurogane glanced at Fay. Then, they both shrugged and turned away.

All in all, they had seen weirder things from their children. A lot weirder.

* * *

Morning came, bringing forth a very cheerful – as usual – Fay and a very grumpy – as even more than usual – Kurogane. After the blonde's insistence that Mokona needed a breakfast, the ninja followed his lover to the door of the thing's room. At a tentative call for the thing, they were happily invited inside. Both followed the invitation swiftly, eager to see just what had required them to stay away the day before.

There was Mokona. Sitting in the middle of a somewhat round-ish heap of rubble that seemed to consist of paper, feathers, and… were those his clothes?! And one of the mage's cloaks, too?

"Um… Mokona?" Fay asked with that ever-present smile of his – the smile that annoyed Kurogane less nowadays when it was mostly genuine. "What exactly is this?" The blonde's hand on his arm was currently the only thing keeping Kurogane from killing the meat bun. Those were his clothes! Well, had been, before the white thing had claimed them as its toys…

"It's a nest," Mokona replied happily, flopping itself in the middle of the mess. Somehow it seemed even rounder than usual. "A Mokona nest!"

"A nest?" echoed Fay, sounding surprised. Apparently he found some kind of a hidden meaning in that comment. "Do you mean…"

"Yup!" Mokona said cheerfully, placing its tiny hands somewhere around the area its tummy was supposedly located. "Mokona and the other Mokona are going to have mini-Mokonas!"

For a moment, Kurogane just stared at the white little thing. Then, with a strangled groan, he turned around and fled the room.

He was struggling to keep very unwelcome mental images of the "how the Hell did that happen?" variety out of his mind.

* * *

"I guess we never even thought of the fact that Mokona would eventually grow up, too," Fay said some time later as he finally found Kurogane, sitting down next to the ninja and leaning his head on the broad shoulder. "I did once say that Mokona was the oldest of the children, but I never thought it would make us grandparents before Sakura and Syaoran!"

"Oh, be quiet," groaned Kurogane. "The notion of the brat and the princess possibly having sex at some point is disturbing enough. I do not need to think of the meat buns doing the same!"

"Really, Kuro-tan, you're such a pervert," Fay chuckled. "Mokona-chan would be appalled to know its daddy is harbouring such thoughts!"

"Shut up," growled the ninja. Then he asked, "So, our's the female one, then? What with it making a nest and varying the little ones and all?"

"I'm not sure, actually," Fay replied. "I didn't ask. It might very well be that Mokonas do not reproduce in ways familiar to us, and in that case classifying them by gender would be rather pointless, don't you agree?"

"That," Kurogane said, "is not a topic I'm willing to discuss."

* * *

Even after the nest had been first construced, Mokona's life still seemed to revolve around it. It borrowed coloured inks from Tomoyo to decorate papers to add to the nest's lining. The princess seemed to think the whole process cute, giving the creature a free choice of any materials she might have to add to the nest. Even at the addition of silks and embroidery, however, Mokona refused to return their clothes. It insisted they were the most important parts of the nest, making its future offspring feel close to their 'grandparents' right away. Kurogane suspected it was just trying to annoy him, but Fay found it adorable, so there was nothing he could do.

He couldn't help but notice, however, that the thing had been getting rounder recently. Its hyperactive bouncing had turned into a no less enthusiastic hopping, but even though it no more bounced literally off the walls, it could still very much annoy him. Especially when it insisted it was too exhausted to walk around and that Kurogane should carry it.

However annoyed, though, he couldn't be entirely unaffected by the thing's enthusiasm. Sometimes he found himself even wondering just what the little Mokonas would look like when they were born. And how many would there be? The thing kept talking of little ones in plural, but did that mean two or twenty? He didn't know exactly what to classify Mokona as – was it an animal, or some other kind of a creature altogether? – so he had absolutely no idea how many offspring it could have at a time.

The thought of twenty-some fluffy things bouncing around made him shudder. Hopefully Mokona would keep closer to two kids.

It wasn't like it could carry very many, anyway, unless they were really small. Although the thing's stomach was getting rounder and rounder… As they had no idea when the little ones were going to be born, Fay had insisted on installing a bell in their bedroom with a string leading to Mokona's room. That way, if the little things decided to be born at night, Mokona could call them for help. Kurogane had naturally complained about this, but, having a protective streak a few miles wide (not that he'd ever admit it aloud), he was secretly semi-happy about it. However annoying the thing was, he didn't want it to get hurt by trying to deliver its babies all alone.

This, of course, didn't keep him from producing a few choice curse words when a perfectly peaceful night was suddenly interrupted by the frantic sound of a little bell.

Fay immediately leapt to his feet, telling Kurogane to go and get princess Tomoyo while he went to check on the thing. The ninja protested slightly, saying the princess should not be awakened, but left nevertheless. He knew Tomoyo would never forgive him if she missed the birth, middle of night or not.

As it happened, however, he found the princess already awake, accompanied – as always – by Souma. Before he could say anything, the princess simply smiled and told him to lead the way. The female ninja followed without a word, fully clothed despite the fact that it was already past midnight, like the princess. They probably had been expecting this, Kurogane mused. Now that he thought about it, both Mokona and even Fay had been behaving a bit strangely all day…

If anybody even thought of uttering the words 'female instinct' he'd kill them. He got enough jokes about his 'wife' as it was.

As soon as they had arrived, he was sent away again, told to "heat some water or something" to occupy himself. Birthing room was not a place for men, he was told, even if the expecting mother was a fluffy little thing and not a human.

At this point, Kurogane knew better than to question Fay's presence. After all, it was more than traditional for the grandmother to be present at the birth, ridiculous though the whole notion was.

Thus he was left with nothing to do aside from twiddling his thumbs (as well as making rounds to check on the guards, yelling at those he caught dozing off, knocking out some would-be-assassins, yelling at what unfortunate souls he encountered in the dark castle, and other usual activities for him). Finally, though, Souma was sent to retrieve him, informing with a little smirk that he had just become the grandfather of seven absolutely adorable little things.

Seven? Well, it was more bearable than twenty, he guessed…

In Mokona's room he found a very much less round white thing surrounded by very, very tiny things of various greys and black-and-white patterns. The babies, he noticed, had enormous ears compared with their size. The said size was not much bigger than the end of his thumb. Talk about small and fragile.

"Mokona is happy!" the new mother announced cheerily. "Tired, too, though. In the morning Mokona has to tell the other Mokona it's a daddy!"

"Wait a minute," Kurogane said. "Do you mean it doesn't even know you were expecting?"

"Nope!" came the happy response. "It'll be a great surprise, don't you think, Kuro-daddy?"

Kurogane made a strangled noise. Then he turned to look at Fay, who was currently chirping at the teeny tiny things and introducing himself as their grandmother. Tomoyo and Souma were watching them from a bit afar, smiling at the scene.

Kurogane snorted. Softies, all of them. And the mage just couldn't learn to be sensible, could he?

Whatever his thoughts were initially, though, he couldn't help but smile a bit as one tiny thing grasped on his little finger with its tiny paws, clinging to him. It was so small it seemed like the tiniest breeze could blow it away.

The last bits of his annoyance vanished as he inwardly vowed to protect these tiny things from any danger there might be. Nothing and nobody was going to hurt his family if he could help it – even if the said family currently consisted of an insane mage and a bunch of things that didn't belong to any known species.

…He would not, however, consent to being called "Kuro-grandpa."

* * *

"Good evening, Kurogane-san," Doumeki answered the call. "Can I help you in some way?"

Much though he hated admitting it, Kurogane was kind of impressed at the network Yuuko had set up. Combining the powers of Mokona and the princess's wings, she had connected the three worlds – Clow Country, Kurogane's Japan, and her Japan – to each other through mirrors and magical doors. The mirrors were used for making calls, and the doors allowed visits, although due to the exhaustion caused by the travelling they most often simply called instead of going over. Yuuko had explained it was because the doors used the traveller's own energy to allow passage. Kurogane said she'd just made it that way because she was a bitch.

"Depends," Kurogane replied dryly. "Is the black thing around there somewhere?"

"Mokona is here!" the said black thing announced, bouncing to the sight and settling itself to sit on Doumeki's shoulder. "What is it, Kuro-daddy?"

Resisting the urge to grit his teeth at the address, Kurogane simply held up the basket he was currently holding. "Somebody's got some news to you."

"Hi!" the white Mokona said cheerfully, waving at its counterpart. "Guess who just became a daddy?"

The black thing's eyes actually opened in surprise as it saw the seven tiny things surrounding the other thing. Making an unidentifiable noise, it then fell from Doumeki's shoulder, apparently having fainted.

"Whaaaat?" Watanuki's face appeared into the mirror, peeking over Doumeki's shoulder. "There are baby Mokonas?!"

"So it appears," Kurogane replied dryly. "And considering there used to be only two of a kind, yours is most probably responsible."

"Oh, how cute!" exclaimed the bespectacled boy. "They are soooo adorable! When were they born? Why didn't you tell us earlier? What are their names?"

"They were born just last night," Kurogane replied, rolling his eyes towards the ceiling. "We thought it'd be better to let both you and the mother to sleep for a bit before spreading the news. As for names, well, if anything has been decided yet, I have not been informed."

"This one's going to be Luna!" Mokona announced, holding one tiny baby up for inspection. "Because it's just like its mother but silver-coloured. Tomoyo-chan decided it! But the others don't have names yet!"

"Where's Fay-san, anyway?" asked Doumeki while Watanuki and Mokona continued their enthusiastic conversation. "I would have rather expected him to make this call than you."

"He's busy," Kurogane sighed. "Tomoyo-hime decided this called for a party, so now he's preparing it. And yes, you're all invited. Even," he made a face, "the witch."

"Oh, she's not that bad," Doumeki replied with a small shrug. "Have you called Sakura-chan and Syaoran-kun yet?"

"Nope. Wanted to let the culprit know, first. I'm going to make the call as soon as these two let me." Kurogane pointed at the still fussing Watanuki and Mokona.

"Oi." Doumeki elbowed Watanuki. "They still need to call Clow Country. You'll get to talk more when we visit."

"Oh, stop it!" Watanuki exploded. "It's not like we were talking that long! And you were talking, too! Since when have you had any right to order me around, anyway? I'm not some little –"

The call was cut off, leaving a simple mirror behind, Kurogane's reflection smirking back at him. Those two had quite a relationship. You'd have thought they hated each other with the way Watanuki behaved, but Kurogane knew better – they were bound together just as surely as his mage and he. Although their relationship involved a lot less yelling, and when it did, he was the one yelling, not the idiot. Sometimes he wondered how Doumeki put up with both the idiocy and the temper fits.

Then again, maybe the temper wouldn't be that bad, compared with Fay's 'mommy' persona…

* * *

The party wasn't that bad, Kurogane supposed. He managed to avoid the witch for the most part, Watanuki didn't get himself into a hysterical fit – mostly thanks to Doumeki, no doubt – and nobody got too drunk to handle. Everybody fussed around the new little family, which meant he could easily enough get some peace away from the main chaos. With sake, too.

They were already discussing where the little Mokonas would live once they were old enough to leave home. Thankfully. Eight full-grown Mokonas hopping around would have definitely claimed his sanity. Even one had seemed like too much sometimes.

Tomoyo had obviously claimed little Luna as her own favourite, while Sakura and Syaoran told they would be more than happy to take in all the Mokonas that could not find another home for themselves – the Clow palace had more than enough space. One of the babies seemed to have taken a special liking to Doumeki, who didn't seem to mind – according to him, having two Mokonas in the house hardly could be much more trouble than one.

(In Kurogane's opinion, it was more a case of 'three idiots in the house can hardly be more trouble than two,' considering the poor kid was living with Watanuki. Then again, he couldn't really talk – he was voluntarily living with Fay of all people, after all. Talk about masochism.)

At last, however, the guests had to leave – Tomoyo had naturally offered to arrange quarters for them all so that they could stay longer, but they had refused, each having their own duties to attend to. The black Mokona stayed behind even as Watanuki and Doumeki left (bickering in a way that in Kurogane's eyes made their relationship even more obvious than if they had walked hand in hand). After the initial shock, it seemed to be all too happy to share the responsibility of raising the babies.

Nine fuzzy things under his roof. Oh, joy.

Still, Kurogane thought as he lay himself down that night, it could have been worse. At least he wasn't the black thing. From semi-serious dating to a father of seven in one mirror-call was quite a quick transition.

Pulling Fay as close as he could, he wrapped his arms around the other man. Unlike the black thing, he wasn't about to be surprised by any 'You're a daddy' rumours. Of course there had been some – his position wasn't bad, and there were always women who would do such a thing. Considering the fact that he'd never slept with a woman, or with anybody else but Fay ever since he'd left for his journey, however, he had always been quite certain the children weren't his.

The children that he and the mage actually had were enough trouble. Especially when they started marrying each other.

Well, he thought, pressing his face against the blonde's hair, at least he wasn't in it alone.

Somewhere in Mokona's room nine little things all broke into giggles at the same moment.

Yes, Kurogane thought, holding Fay close as a shiver ran through him, he was glad he was indeed with Fay.

Just then Fay stirred in his arms. "It's kind of funny, you know," the mage mumbled, half-asleep.

"What's funny?" asked Kurogane. He just wanted to sleep…

"Funny that in most worlds except mine, it's the female that carries the kids."

Okay. So much for sleep, then.

* * *

A/N: Yes, there is going to be a sequel. If possible, even more cracky than this story. Beware. 


End file.
